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Mizzou Football deserves better than Liberty Bowl in 2018

By Leigh Oleszczak

COLUMBIA, MO - NOVEMBER 10: Head coach Barry Odom of the Missouri Tigers walks his team to the field prior to a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Memorial Stadium on November 10, 2018 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, MO - NOVEMBER 10: Head coach Barry Odom of the Missouri Tigers walks his team to the field prior to a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Memorial Stadium on November 10, 2018 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /
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Mizzou football finished their 2018 campaign with an 8-4 record, good for fourth place in the SEC East and a number 23 ranking nationally. So why then, are the Tigers only being rewarded with an appearance in the Liberty Bowl?

Normally being ranked at the end of the season results in a decent bowl game for that program. Missouri football fans, however, were a bit disappointed when they heard their bowl destination for the 2018 season.

Mizzou, after going 8-4 and ripping off four straight wins to end the season, will be in this year’s Liberty Bowl. Their opponent is Oklahoma State, a team Missouri used to play regularly when both were members of the Big 12. They last faced the Cowboys in the Cotton Bowl in the 2013 season, winning 41-31.

Now yes, simply being in a bowl game is a big deal, especially when that didn’t appear to be a given for Missouri midway through the season. With that said, however, the Tigers destroyed a ranked Florida team and then handled their next three opponents with ease. They’re ranked 23rd in the country too, which seems important.

The end of the year ranking at least made it seem like an appearance in the Music City Bowl or Outback Bowl could be an option. Those are two respectable bowl games and one that would have made sense for the Tigers.

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The Liberty Bowl, the bowl game that MU was named to, will take place on December 31st (New Years Eve) at 2:45 against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Oklahoma State went 6-6 in 2018 and managed to knock off some big time teams, like Texas and West Virginia, both of whom were ranked at the time.

OSU also dropped games to TCU and Kansas State, two programs that did not make bowl games. In other words, the Cowboys are a formidable opponent with tendencies to drop winnable games. This match-up could go either way honestly.

This will be the final game of Drew Lock’s Mizzou career before he enters the draft and heads to the pros. He’s appeared in just one bowl game prior to this, which came last year against Texas in the Texas Bowl. It wasn’t a great performance from Lock or the Tigers, but this year should go better.

When looking at some of the other bowl games, it’s puzzling that Missouri only landed in the Liberty Bowl, but it’s not like they didn’t have their chances to post a better record. Had the Tigers pulled out tight games against South Carolina and Kentucky, they could have ended the year at 10-2 and been one of the best teams in the country.

Instead, a Liberty Bowl will have to do for the 23rd best team in the country. Last second losses to the Gamecocks and Wildcats proved to be costly for the Missouri Tigers, but at least the Liberty Bowl is better than no bowl game at all.

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